Thomas T.

Vieira

Karen Philips

English 2B

16 June 2021

Cavalier Poetry and its Creation

Cavalier Poetry, as created and popularized in Tudor England, is art. However, it cannot
be considered a “pure” form of art. “Art”, in the popular meaning of the word, can mean many
things, but most times, the utmost conclusion that can be derived from all of them is that has to
do with creativity and the exercise of such in various ways, as to express one’s feelings, thoughts
and views on many subjects and situations. Art, when inspired by creativity and by one’s will to
express something just for the act of expressing it is what should be held as the purest form of
art. Even so, not all art is pure, as it might be not inspired by creativity, but by external reasons,
such as someone commissioning it or asking directly for it. Art generated by such intentions can
be pure to some extent, as the author might embrace the work fully and use it to communicate
himself. The opposite of the “pure art” previously exposed is what is called “artificial art”. Arti-
ficial art would be that art that does not express anything and does not convey thoughts and emo-
tions. Such forms of art are merely focused on beauty and appearance, seeking to express no fur-
ther than what is visible. Cavalier Poetry, also known as “Caroline Lyric”, is a precise example
of artificial art, being it not only focused only on the aesthetical terms of poetry but also being a
fully political form of art. As Dr. Ravi Bhushan Singh states in his study on Cavalier Poetry
(while comparing Cavalier Poetry to Elizabethan lyric), “In conclusion, the Caroline lyric is the
result of conscious effort. It is artificial. It is a work of art characterized by finish, polish, and el-
egance of language but lacking that spontaneity and absence of effort which characterized the
Elizabethan lyric” (Singh).

Now, merely stating that it was not pure art, as done before, does not tell us all of the rea-
sons why that is. To understand that we must look at the reasons it was created. Only by under-
standing the time, place, and setting in which it was created that we can fully analyze and under-
stand that form of poetry. At first, it is important to note who were the poems directed to, as to
understand why they were written the way they were, and why the chosen themes were what
they were. The cavalier poetry, just as the name suggests, was meant to be read by nobles and
aristocrats. That is especially why the most recurring themes were ones that spoke of chivalry
and virtue and ones of nature and bucolic imagery. Such themes appealed to the ideal of a noble
at the time, and the ideal life of a man. That is also why such poems were simple and objective,
caring only about the visible beauty of the poem. Nobles were not critics and appreciators of art.
What they wanted by consuming such things was to feel good and to appreciate the simplicity
that was put before them. For John Muller, “The Cavalier poets were writing England’s first vers
de société, lyrics of compliments and casual liaisons, often cynical, occasionally obscene…”
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(Shrimpton et al). As Muller states, Cavalier's poetry was extremely disconnected from reality,
exposing only compliments and casual liaisons, boasting the noble virtues, and the bucolic rela-
tionships and virtues. Those themes were commonly mixed, meaning that Cavalier Poets did not
use them both as separate themes in one poem, but they used the cavalier virtues and natural
virtues as interdependent themes. That means that such themes grew so much into each other that
it became exceedingly rare to see someone only referring to one of the themes individually with-
out it seeming uncomplete. The intent behind mixing both nature’s virtue and the noble virtue’s
was to appeal at the same time to the two most valuable themes to a man from that date, being
them: themselves, as in the ideal and platonic version of man; and the world, in its purest form,
symbolizing not only the ideal setting that men imagined but also the external relationships they
had with a woman and other animals, always at its purest form. Some examples of the are Robert
Herrick’s (Fig.1) poems since most have those themes as central subjects. One of his poems par-
ticularly speaks to both sorts of virtues. To The Virgins, which has a painting based on the poem
(Fig.2), one of Robert Herricks most famous poems is one of the clearest examples of the natural
virtues approached by the Cavalier Poetry, as it not only praises natural features, such as flowers
or the sun but also the bucolic relation between nobles and virgins, entwining both the natural
and the masculine virtues. Understanding that such poems were vigorously aimed at that specific
group of people was for sure one of the key things to understand the Cavalier poetry. However,
that by itself is of little use. We must also explore the setting in which Cavalier poetry became a
thing and its role in history to have a deep view on the matter.

Even though the poets that took part in the Cavalier poetry movement did not hint at it
in their writings, their lives were closely tied to politics; as one could imagine, since it was
poetry made for nobles. William Chilton Troutman made a study on the lives of the Cavalier
poets, which led him to discover that “The early lives of the Cavalier poets were closely
connected with the political and military events of Charles I's reign. These men secured this
political prominence through certain traits of character, which gained them favor with the Stuart
party” (Troutman). Nicholas Dowell could also describe the culture and lives of the cavalier
poets, as he did when stating that “…the dynamic models of poetic composition, community
performance, drinking, and friendship (…) that are associated with the cavalier poets can be
found in the manuscript culture of the inns of court and the universities of Oxford and
Cambridge” (Dowell). By that, we can understand where the cavalier poets were on the Tudors
England Hierarchy; nobles that lived a life in community, being avid enjoyers of the culture of
the nobility. Despite the poets’ lives being focused on the cultural side of being a noble, their
work always had its link to politics. The cavalier poets are known for advocating politically for
King Charles I (Fig. 3), also producing their poetry according to king Charles I preferences and
desires, as he was a connoisseur of fine arts. The most important moment in the history of the
cavalier poets' political influence was during the English Civil War (1642-1651), a moment
where England was extremely polarized when they supported the king and even served as
propaganda to their side of the war.

Now, even it being an extremely politically driven and aimed form of art, we may not
assume it is not a form of art, or even that it is not pure art. Even when a piece is created with the
objective intention to play a role in politics or is created aiming to a specific group it can be
inspired by creativity and genuine will to do so. Cavalier poetry, as analyzed before, has genuine
and specific traits that belong to them, but we cannot use it to say that it is for sure pure art. As
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also analyzed before, it is clear that such a form of poetry was deeply connected to politics, but
we also cannot just use that to infer that it is not art at all. According to Jerome DeGroot, the
themes and form of the poems being extremely specific and narrowed down to a specific
audience are not something that would define the qualities of a whole genre of art. Those specific
areas of the creation of the poem are not something to classify if something is art or not, and it
should only be considered individually for each poem, so we can analyze the quality of it.
However, what we can do is to understand why these poems had such themes and use this
reasoning to understand if it is or not a high-level art or not. As aforementioned, we can only see
through the individual pieces of art and into the question of whether or not some genre is art
when we analyze the intention of the artists and the reasoning behind how he did it. As for the
Cavalier Poets, their intentions on their pieces were mainly focused on exposing virtue and
polish pleasure on their readers. If it were simply that, genuinely, it would be surely called art.
However, as it is made almost as commissioned by King Charles I in various ways, such as by
helping him politically and being made according to his tastes, it lacks the spontaneity art should
have. This lack of spontaneity is backed up by both John Mullan and Dr. Ravi Bhushan Singh,
especially when he addresses this problem when saying that all of the visual ornaments Cavalier
poetry has do not back up its lack of spontaneity.

Having all of that information discussed in mind, and being able to hold
determinations for what we consider art or not, it should become easier to analyze the subject
rightfully and to classify Cavalier poetry on whether it is or not art. We have seen that the topics
approached on Cavalier poetry are extremely shallow, appealing to visual pleasure and too
idealistic views on morals and virtues only, meaning that it did not intend on communicating any
ideas past the common and general fantasies of men. That shows us that what is there to be
analyzed in the subject is the usage of such simple themes in society and how they came to be.
Secondly, we have understood that the lives of the poets of such artistic movement were closely
tied up to politics, having their past lives in nobility and advocating on diverse subjects regarding
both nobility and the administration of England. We also have seen that the poets were close to
King Charles I, basing their writing on the king’s desires. That shows us the artificial setting in
which Cavalier poetry came to be, exposing its unnatural reasons for creating art and the reason
why it had such topics as mentioned before. At last, we have seen how to sort levels of art and
what some scholars of the matter had in their minds regarding such topic. That way, by holding
views of such classification and by having a metric to use, we become fit to determine if it is or
not art at all. For that, we must consider once again that art, in its most pure form, is creative in
nature and aims to communicate feelings or ideas, as well as is spontaneous and natural. Art that
does not do that is, at the very least, a lower level of art. Art of that level can sometimes be
disregarded as art at all. In conclusion, even though it is not creative in nature and spontaneous,
Cavalier poetry must be considered art. Not pure art, as it does not live up to being creative and
does not communicates spontaneous feelings and things, but a low art, that does communicate
ideas. Cavalier poetry, as seen, advocates politically – even though not by itself – in an artificial
manner, as it holds ties to nobility. It also communicates artificially the idealized virtues of the
man and world. To sum it up, it is art. A low level of art, created artificially to appeal to a group
and a person specifically, is not creative. Despite that, it does communicate something and
cannot be disregarded as art.
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Fig. 1. Robert Herrick, portrait by Edward Everett Hale, in The

Hawthorne Readers, Book 4 (1904). Wikimedia Commons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Herrick_(poet)#/media/File:Robert_Herrick_(poet)_

(cropped).jpg – accessed on 15 Jun. 2021

Fig. 2. Waterhouse, John. “Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May”,

1909. Oil on canvas. Private Collection. Wikimedia

Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waterhouse-

gather_ye_rosebuds-1909.jpg Accessed on 15 Jun. 2021

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Fig 3. van Dyck, Anthony. “Charles I” 1636. Oil on canvas. Royal Collection Trust, Royal

Castle. https://www.rct.uk/collection/404398/charles-i-1600-1649 accessed 15 Jun. 2021

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Works Cited

Groot, Jerome de. "Cavalier poets (act. c. 1640–c. 1660)." Oxford Dictionary of National

Biography.  September 22, 2011. Oxford University Press. Date of access 28 Feb. 2021,

https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-

9780198614128-e-95606

McDowell, Nicholas. “Classical Liberty and Cavalier Poetics: The Politics of Literary

Community in Caroline London from Jonson to Marvell.” Modern Humanities Research

Association, 28 Jun. 2014,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/yearenglstud.44.2014.0120. Accessed 28 February

2021.

Shrimpton, Nicholas, Baker, Peter S., Bee, John Bernard, Davies, Hugh Alistair, Butler, M.H.,

Cordner, Michael, Mullan, John, Beadle, Richard, Kemp, Peter and Mutter, Reginald

P.C. "English literature". Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Jul. 2020,

https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature. Accessed 28 February 2021.

Singh, Ravi. “Cavalier Poetry.” Dept. of English of MDDM College (2018).

Troutman, William. “The Influence of Exile and Foreign Travel Upon the Cavalier Poets,

Cowley, Davenant, Denham, and Wallers.” University of Illinois (1919).